Series on Critical Book, Publishing, and Literacy Studies

Litwin Books and Library Juice Press seek book proposals and manuscripts for a new ongoing series, Critical Book, Publishing, and Literacy Studies, edited by Robert D. Montoya. This series will publish works from both practical and theoretical perspectives that critically engage issues in the library and information studies fields related to oral and print culture, writing and the book, manuscripts, authorship, reading, literacies, publishing, and publishing technologies. The goal of this series is to fundamentally redefine approaches to book, publishing, and literacy studies that challenge the established paradigms, formats, critiques, and epistemologies. This series is intended to promote more just, ethical, and diverse examinations in these domains.

Potential subjects include:

• Critical approaches to traditional topics in book, publishing, and literacy studies including, but not limited to, postcolonial, decolonial, critical race, queer and feminist, indigenous, and ecological, resilience, or sustainability theories
• Works that address book history (broadly construed) in conjunction with other articulations of difference including race, class, nationality, etc.
• Works that bring the study of literacies and reading into conversation with contemporary theoretical debates in book history
• Historical perspectives on book collecting and curatorship as they pertain to libraries, librarians, and book sellers/dealers
• Histories that focus on underrepresented local, national, or global communities
• The role of women, LGBTQI+, BIPOC, and other minoritized communities in book history, production, and distribution
• The role of book and publishing culture as it relates to civic participation and education, particularly vulnerable communities such as children, young adults, the elderly, second language learners, etc.
• Examinations of book production and publication that focus on material labor practices, the body, health, and the environment
• Books, publishing, and literacies in a time of global warming, the Anthropocene, and other environmental topics
• Works that illustrate the role of small presses and independent publishing to book history, particularly how they push against mainstream publishers and facilitate experimentation, new aesthetics, and radical interventions
• International and comparative case studies that highlight the importance of cultural and epistemic differences in book, publishing, and literacy studies
• The role of books, publishing, and literacies in times of political change, conflict, and national/international reconstruction
• Books/print/literacies as vehicles for nationalist ideologies, knowledge censorship, civic or community repression, and epistemic violence
• Activism and grassroots movements around the globe
• Books and literacies as they relate to new, digital, and technological modes of production and distribution, particularly as they redefine our experiences, social relationships, materialities, and ethics
• Teaching and pedagogy related to book, publishing, and literacy studies—especially radical, critical, and counter-systemic approaches

The Series Editor, Robert D. Montoya, M.F.A, M.L.I.S., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Information Studies, School of Education and Information Studies. He is also the Director of UCLA’s California Rare Book School (CalRBS) and the Library, Ethics, and Justice Lab in the UCLA Department of Information Studies.

Please submit queries, proposals, and manuscripts to Robert D. Montoya, montoya@gseis.ucla.edu, following the guidelines here.